The last time Sony gave us a sci-fi movie, it was “Passengers,” and I never want to think about it again. So let’s just say they have a lot to make up for with “Life,” but here’s hoping we get some smart sci-fi thrills, not some half-baked concept that makes every insipid narrative choice possible.
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From the pens of “Deadpool” writers Rheet Reese and Paul Wernick, and starring Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, the film takes audiences aboard the International Space Station, where things go very, very wrong. Here’s the synopsis:
Life is a terrifying sci-fi thriller about a team of scientists aboard the International Space Station whose mission of discovery turns to one of primal fear when they find a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth.
“Life” closes SXSW and opens on March 24th.
In defense…every Jennifer Lawrence movie is a half-baked cliche. LOL Just saying. Like every movie she’s been in, the plots are predictable. And her regular director always needs to do a happy ending that he pretty much has set-up in the first 20 minutes. Not a fan of hers to begin with but just saying, if you were hoping to go to “Passengers”, that would be one of the few times she didn’t have a great ensemble cast covering the spread, with a co-star unproven in drama, you were kidding yourself. But I don’t see Sony as a great studio to begin with. Besides, admittedly, the funny “21 Jump Street” films, we’ve gotten a “Spider-Man” reboot that was pathetic, a mediocre set of “Men in Black” sequels, and now they want to make an “MIB 23” that fuses those. Sony, for me, is great as a video game company and that’s it. For movies, they struggle with genuine story work. I see “Life” and you have a well-rounded cast, the clips look solid, but I’m not very hopeful about it. The upside is this script was made by the “Deadpool” writers and has up-and-comer Rebecca Ferguson who carries herself with some genuine concern and focus in all her films. But the concept looks like “Alien”. I’m not sure how you can do “Evolving alien on a space station” differently but we’ll see.